 DeWitt Nelson explains racquet positioning to a student |
After moving from one job to another, Nelson has found a home in the Hudson Valley and at the Woodstock Tennis Club. Named head pro at the club in 2003, he has brought stability to a club that turned over four pros in four years. Its 90 members acquired the club in 1999. "Private country clubs can be daunting, but the Woodstock Tennis Club isn't. It's not your stuffy, all-white, dress-code tennis club, but [it's]very laid-back. We don't have a kitchen, bar, or swimming pool," he says.
The no-frills club does have six Har-tru courts, a refrigerator, outdoor shower stalls, and an eclectic membership that reflects Woodstock. "It's a diverse groups of Woodstockers and weekenders, including several artists," he says. Members include Neil Rubinstein, who runs major craft festivals; Paul Solis-Cohen, Catskill Arts Supply owner; and Elena Zang, owner of an eponymous art gallery.
"It's a low-key club. Many people don't know us. They confuse us with Zena Rec, but if they tried us, they'd like us," the ebullient Nelson says.
Most summer days Nelson starts off by watering the courts and then sweeping them to ensure they're in top playing condition. He usually gives a morning lesson. He runs daily drills (stretch for the overhead and loosen your wrist on the serve) in the morning and then oversees junior camp, where children up to age 16 learn the basics of tennis. In junior camp, he emphasizes having fun. "Competition can be healthy, but it puts too much pressure on kids," he notes. Thursday night is mix 'n' match, where members and nonmembers play doubles and then dine on pizza. After Labor Day, Nelson organizes the Woodstock Open, which attracts some of the best players in the Hudson Valley, from Poughkeepsie to Albany.
Though most tennis players love the game, Nelson has observed that too many players get bent out of shape by the competition. "Tennis is very psychological. If your personal worth is tied into the score, that can mean trouble," he says. When he played tournaments as a teenager, he recalls having smacked the ball in warm-ups, then tightening up as each match reached its finale. "My mind took over, and it wouldn't let me be free to do the strokes my body knew," he admits.
Born in Manhattan, Nelson's was raised by actor-parents. His mom, Joan DeWeese, performed in the soap "One Life to Live" and acted in several productions of Joseph Papp's Shakespeare in the Park. His dad, Herbert Nelson, appeared in the soap "Guiding Light" and the films Little Big Man (he led the posse that tarred and feathered Dustin Hoffman) and Hindenburg. Rather than hire a babysitter, mom dragged Nelson along to auditions and rehearsals and turned him into a child actor. At age seven, he appeared in a Shakespeare in the Park production of "MacBeth," playing MacDuff's son to James Earl Jones' s MacDuff, and also performed in "A Winter's Tale," alongside Dixie Carter, Charles Durning, and Michael Moriarity. After gaining his Actor's Equity card, he tired of having to "wear tights and makeup" and quit theater at the ripe age of 10.
 DeWitt Nelson giving a lesson at the Woodstock tennis club |
Nelson graduated from Mississippi State College as a forestry major in the early 1970s, and then started working for International Paper in Jefferson, Texas, near Texarkana. As a forester, he "cruised timber," which involved determining through a sample how many feet of timber and cords the pulpwood would yield. He also had to set fire to the woods to clear the undergrowth and promote the growth of pine. But when those duties got monotonous, he quit forestry and moved to Daytona Beach, Florida, where he attended a trade school and became a motorcycle mechanic. Transplanting yet again to Athens, Georgia, he worked as a mechanic at Bishop Cycle Sales, and started playing bass at night for local bands.
Returning east in the 1980s, Nelson's music career soon escalated. He started playing bass at the oldies circuit with the Drifters, the Marvelettes, and Little Anthony, and then toured with Roy Radin's Vaudeville Theatre with luminaries such as Tiny Tim and Pinkie Lee. He played clubs from Maine to South Carolina, including the Bottom Line in Greenwich Village, the Nassau Coliseum, and some dives, and also performed on albums by Jumpin' Jack, Pride, and D. Saxmo.
Though bass players are often viewed as providing background, Nelson begs to differ. "You can't do anything without them. They supply the melodic aspect and rhythm. Good bass players are essential," he said. After performing at hundreds of do-wop concerts, Nelson says, it started to become drudgery. Frustrated, he exclaimed after one 1984 Crystals concert, "One more do-wop song and I'll go nuts." He promptly quit. He moved to Fort Collins, Colorado, and played bass for B. B. Coleman's blues band.
After a stint in Oakland, California, Nelson returned east and helped establish "Up Close," a syndicated radio show, with Dan Neer, whose brother, Richard Neer, was a WNEW-FM disc jockey. The show ran for eight years and reached 180 stations. Nelson interviewed Paul McCartney, Sting, Pink Floyd, Santana, Bob Dylan, and Derek Clapton, with each show interspersing the performer's music with the Q&A.
Nelson married in 1990 and lived in Greenwich Village. In 1992, he and his wife had a daughter, Lani, and moved to Stone Ridge. "I took some time off and became Mr. Mom," he says. He became a board member at his daughter's private school, the High Meadow School in Stone Ridge. He was widowed in the late 1990s.
 Removing old strings from a racquet in preparation for restringing |
After taking a break from bass playing, he started performing again in the Hudson Valley and met singer Barbara Dempsey, formed the Barbara Dempsey Trio, and will be marrying Ms. Dempsey this Memorial Day. The trio performs at Gadaleto's, the Hickory BBQ Smokehouse, and the Willow Creek Inn, and also appears with Big Joe Fitz's blues band, led by the WDST disc jockey.
"People who do one job for many years can get into a rut. I've had so many jobs that it's much more difficult getting into a rut," says the actor/musician/tennis pro/educator.
Why did he drift from one job to another? "Mostly out of passion, not the desire to make a living. I just loved making music, had motorcycle fever forever, have always been fascinated by tennis, and loved being in the woods," he said.
In Walden, Henry David Thoreau wrote that he wanted to "live deliberately, live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived." Sounds a lot like DeWitt Nelson's journey.